(UPDATE) A FILIPINO-DUTCH citizen who filed a petition calling on the rejection of asylum for former Malacañang spokesman Harry Roque asked what the latter was doing in Luxembourg, after he posted videos of himself in the grand duchy.
In a post on Friday night (Philippine time), Joel Vega, who crafted the petition back in March, pointed out that Luxembourg is where the Court of Justice of the European Union is located.
“It should be noted that Mr. Roque himself has announced several times his plan to elevate or appeal his asylum request to a higher international court in the event his initial attempt is set aside. He was accompanied by another propagandist. Could he be assisting her, perhaps for her own asylum attempt?” Vega said. “Or is this a mission to test the waters and file that appeal? A strange coincidence when the Dutch IND (immigration service) reportedly forwarded earlier this week his asylum to another European country which issued his Schengen visa.”
Former presidential spokesman Harry Roque
Vega also asked about the whereabouts of Roque’s canceled Philippine passport.
“Asylum procedural rules across the EU are uniform with slight variations in the implementing guidelines. One surrenders the passport to the country where one is applying,” he said.
“I hold clear documentary evidence since April that Roque’s asylum request before the Dutch was entered with the Dublin Regulation as annotation, so there is no question in my view that he entered the Schengen region via another neighboring country,” Vega added.
“Since the European countries are not obliged to disclose updates except to the applicant (yes, Mr. Roque we have an agreement on that point), the period or prescribed time from one country to hand over the applicant to another agency is of importance,” the petitioner said.
He hoped that authorities in the Philippines and in Europe would be in close coordination.
Roque fled the Philippines, following the House of Representatives citing him in contempt for not showing up at a quad committee hearing.